Fuel price march to Treasury on the cards

The DA and Outa say the fuel levy should be reduced by 20% or R1.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and taxi associations in Tshwane have announced a march to National Treasury next Tuesday to protest the fuel price hike.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane called on all political parties, nongovernmental organisations (NGO), religious bodies, taxi associations and civil society to take part in the protest action against fuel price hikes.

Maimane said the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and general fuel levy should be reduced by 20% or R1, a matter he said could be deliberated in Parliament.

“What the Road Accident Fund has been doing is increasing its levies for the past number of years,” Maimane said.

The DA leader further called for the RAF to be placed under independent and external administration to ensure corruption is rooted out from the fund and that competent leadership takes its helm.

“We believe these actions must be taken over with immediate effect, therefore, we are here today to call on all South Africans, on the 31st of July, next week. At 10 in the morning we will be gathering at Church Square [Tshwane] calling on all South Africans, taxi associations, bus associations, people who are impacted, motorists,” Maimane implored.

He added a memorandum calling for a reduction of the fuel price would be handed over to Treasury.

Maimane said the call to protest the fuel price hike was not a political issue.

Fuel prices were likely to rise again at the end of July going into August.

This is according to the Automobile Association (AA), which was commenting on unaudited mid-month fuel price data released by the Central Energy Fund.

Maimane said Treasury had the ability to adjust levies when tabling the budget.

“South Africans are paying more levies than any other country in the SADC region,” he said, adding it was nonsensical that government was vulnerable to international commodity prices.

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